Google Places vs Yelp - How The Battle Effects Your Small Business

I would not have predicted this.  It seemed that Google Places had all the ammo, the money, the power.  But possibly it was the fear of the Feds and a potential claim of anti competitive advantage that caused Google to pull way, way back.  The big winner in all this has been Yelp.  Combined with the seeming glee that the Yelp reviewers get from admiring their favorite shopping haunts and destroying those who don't treat them right, many of my clients are now more concerned about Yelp than Google Places. 

Yelp now has higher placement on many "Everything Page" searches than the Google Place listings.  Moreover, Google Places isn't always showing on obvious searches for what would be local businesses.  Therefore Yelp owns those pages along with other YP's and directories.

To make matters a lot worse, Siri is favoring Yelp over Google Places on iPhone search.  No clue at this time what Google can do about that.  As a iPhone user, I don't want Yelp results as they are not nearly as accurate as Google Places.  But my concern probably won't change anything.

And last, Yelp has more reviews that Google Places and they don't seem to be losing the race at this time to maintain that lead.  Their reviews tend to be much more detailed and interesting.  Possibly do to the fact that the environment is more fun and interesting.

Google probably has an answer to all of this, and there is no doubt that your website and your Google Places ranking are still more important than Yelp.  But keeping your Yelp site up and making sure your reputation is excellent at both Yelp and Google Places is critical.